As Above So Below (How the Stars Became Our Hearts)
Confessions of a Dark Witch 2
Dark Instinct
Everyone inherently understands how important the play between the light and dark is. Your shadow is longer when the light is at its highest. If you’ve been to a rave, or have ever experienced Christmas lights, you’ll note that the lights are prettiest in the dark. When the sun is out, you can’t see the stars. And as a witch, we love the moon. If there was no darkness, her splendor would constantly be washed out by the radiance of the sun. The universe doesn’t value light or dark. It values balance. In a cake recipe, each ingredient is respected equally. Life is like this cake, whose delicate recipe must be satisfied, or it’s not even a cake. The universe is not polarized. It stays in perfect balance. Negativity may be experienced by individuals, but remains in balance to the universe.
For example, at Thanksgiving, the turkey is clearly dead. Negativity for the turkey, but a celebratory feast for you. To the universe, nothing is lost. Just transferred, and everything remains in balance. A good example of this can be seen in Star Wars. The Prophecy of Anakin Skywalker was that he was to bring balance to the force. When he was born, there were a whole legion of Jedi, but only two Sith. When Anakin had fulfilled the prophecy by becoming Darth Vader, there were just two Jedi remaining. Yoda and Obi-Wan. And two Sith. Vader and Palpatine. In this way, the universe attains balance by adding the necessary ingredients to attain balance.
If you look at it too closely, the universe seems to have a blatant disregard for the suffering of individuals, yet, in that self same way, the universe in some way embodies all individuals
It’s only subjecting itself to pain. (She’s a masochist.) Looking at the bigger picture requires the ability to accept the smallness of your own perspective. In a eusocial colony, or a hivemind, individuals willingly sacrifice themselves for the survival of the hive. A thousand bees will willingly sacrifice their lives to save the queen, and thus saving future generations. If you look at the universe as the entire hive, and the godhead of the universe as the queen, then it becomes so obvious why bad things have to happen to you. The question ‘why me?’ is easily answered with, “Who else?” On the grand scale, your human morals and values don’t even make sense, and are just a result of our feeble dualistic mindset.
We can’t see in the dark. We don’t know what’s out there. It’s scary. There could be monsters. As a caveman, the dark hid scary animals. Even humans use the dark to disguise unsavory deeds. This dichotomy is used to distinguish everything in physical reality, and keeps us alive. Light and dark. Bad and good. Alive and dead. These make sense to a physical creature living inside the universe, but when attributed to gods and goddesses, the universe, and reality as a whole, it breaks down.
For example, stealing is something we consider bad. However, the way stealing is defined breaks down if you look at it from a universal perspective. The universe can’t take anything from you, it already belongs to the universe. The cells in your body belong to the universe. Your life and soul. Can death then even be considered negative? The universe returns you to your original state. Who’s to blame? To the universe, everything is part of a cycle. In a smaller example, you can find a moral play in your garden or your own house. We regard life as sacred, but we kill weeds and pests. Unwanted fungus and bacteria. You find super moldy bread, you destroy it. You see it as ruined, but to the fungus, they found a super nutrient rich substrate.
The universe subsists on balance. And to a being incarnated into a dualistic nature, this can look a bit like…chaos!
It’s better to look past your dualistic nature. And look at the universe as a spectrum of endless colors. And the universes’ desire isn’t balance, it’s beauty. Not as simple as black and white mixed at a 1:1 ratio to create balance, but an assortment of colors that tell a story. When you step outside of yourself, you realize that you’re part of a huge collective. A family of creatures that goes back to the very beginning of time. The atoms that made of the DNA strand of your initial ancestors were cooked in the hearts of stars. Their stories hitting every single note. Every animal, experiencing every triumph, every heartbreak. Every being that has ever experienced death. And the infinite realms beyond death. The infinite realms beyond Earth. Beyond our universe, and extending into the multiverse, we’re connected, from the beginning of time, til the end, before Alpha and past Omega to the previous deaths and future rebirths of the eternal cosmos, our threads are sewn together as one tapestry.
Every piece is honored.
Every being is you. That’s very likely the true message of Jesus Christ. Everybody’s God. That’s the problem with Christianity. They confuse the ‘Iamity’ (I am ness?) as Christ being the supreme being, but he also said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” Really, asking Jesus into your heart is just self realization with extra steps. Maybe easier for an incarnate being to accept that something from the outside still has to save them, even if it comes from within. But the truth is, there is no within or without. The universe is a tangled paradox. Why? Because it can be. Don’t believe me?
What came first, the chicken or the egg? That’s fun. But let’s raise the stakes. What came first, an adult human or the baby? In both situations, logic leads to paradox. That is, the probably calculator of our brains says ERROR. We understand that a baby must have a progenitor. So we assume the adult must have had the first baby, but then logic also tells us that the adult would have had to have been a baby previously, and would have to have had parents. (Not to mention that a baby has a 0% chance of survival without an adult.) So the adult couldn’t have existed first. So logically, we don’t exist…. But that’s a fallacy as……. I think we do???
Logic dictates that you’re just fake. It’s completely impossible that you exist.
Paradox.
Why is any of this important?
Well we must ultimately look at life as something that, yes, maybe isn’t real. Or, that it’s something that just always existed. Which means it never began, and had no progenitor. And this would be another higher concept, like non duality. The conclusion to draw here is that darkness doesn’t exist, or can’t. Or that it just always was. Meaning, the original godhead being contained this ‘evil’ element within itself.
Life is really a play of the light and dark, and many colors and shades it shadows or reflects. Painting a full picture in every shade of the spectrum. Highs, lows, and in betweens. And amidst all these colors, you have a favorite. You don’t know why, it’s just the one you like. You have a color you are, the part you play in the big picture. That color represents your human self, and the pixel you are in this endless tapestry. This isn’t the best color, or the most important, but for some reason, it speaks to you the most. This is what it’s like to be a dark witch.
Even when it comes to actual color, the dark witch usually likes dark shades and blacks. Dark themes and experiences have guided their path, and when it comes to the non dualistic nature of reality, these dark experiences were no less holy or divine. As such, though they connect to the divine, they do so through their own dark instinct. Just think of shadow work. Everyone needs and benefits from shadow work, right? Well a dark witch FULLY embraces their own shadow. They love it. They decorate it. It gives them their power. It’s their native tongue. And as such, is the way they perceive the universe. Whether this darkness is born of trauma, or seemingly just their natural state since birth, this dark instinct is their true self.
This leads the dark witch to many more paths, as they’re open to the naughty, or maybe understand that through duality, that maybe what you may perceive is naughty is just misunderstood. It gives them the ability to walk through the deepest shadows, were most fear to even step foot, and they gain power from these experiences. This is what may lead them to a Dark God (dess), who teaches them to understand the darkness even more deeply. It gives them the power to overcome life’s more difficult obstacles more easily than one not tempered by the dark. And best of all, death becomes a sacred companion.
The Dark Witch See’s beauty in the dark. Not that that they necessarily shun the light completely, but that in their path, they have chosen to dedicate themselves to the dark. The shadow is a part of us all, and it seems the more you try to escape it, the more it hurts. Like a Chinese finger trap. The dark witch accepts the darkness, as it is part of all they have ever known. It is them. In the next segment, we will discuss these Dark Goddesses, and these dark themes, and how they tie in with the bigger picture spiritually.
Until then, as this fall begins to fall upon us, why not take a look at your own darkness. What is something you’ve hidden from yourself? Maybe a childhood fear or trauma. Maybe a personality trait you’ve shoved deep down? During your rituals and meditations, take some time to prepare your shadow this October’s Eve, and have your soul ready to embrace your own Dark Side!
***
About the Author:
Alexiel Raynes is a shaman, philosopher, and musician from Louisville, Ky. He has studied religion and science for over 20 years. His spiritual path focuses on self realization, the liberation of the constraints of the mind on consciousness. He also studies plant medicines and their use in indigenous cultures world wide. He is fascinated with exploring the world beyond the veil of mainstream western science, and postulates at what lies beyond general consensus reality. He, together with his business partner Hallie Walker are the owners of Saol Bandia, a holistic herbal apothecary based in their hometown. They are also very active in raising pagan awareness in their community, and helping give witches the courage to stand up to a world that has forgotten our ways.
You can visit their store at Saolbandia.com
For contact visit Facebook.com/AlexielRaynes2020
Or email [email protected]